I've decided to amend my comic-buying habits a bit; namely, I'm going to start to "wait for the trade" for some titles. Because it occurred to me that some comics are edge-of-the-seat, can't-wait-to-see-what-happens books, and others--although I still enjoy them--are not. For example, Captain America? Edge-of-the-seater. Green Lantern Corps? There's usually at least one storyline in it that I'm anxious to see how it turns out. The new Justice League book? From now on, I can wait. Justice Society? Probably another waiter (although I do like it better than what I've seen of the League's current title). And I'm reasonably sure that those two will eventually make it into trade form.
That's the other issue, though--how do we know which books will and will not eventualy become trade paperbacks? I mean, they don't announce it ahead of time--do folks just guess, or assume?
5 comments:
You can generally assume 95% of everything Marvel publishes will end up being collected, often pretty quickly on the heels of the final issue to be collected being published. I've noticed lately that anything with a high-profile, non-comics writer attached seems to be getting the Hardcover treatment first.
DC is a little slower and seems to be a little pickier about what they collect, but you can usually count on any ongoing series featuring major characters, or mini-series by high-profile creators, being available at some point.
The indies are a bit more difficult to predict and your best bet there is to check out the publisher's track record. The better ones are building a backlist and a collected edition is part of their overall business plan. The vanity presses (Image included) are a crapshoot, and sometimes buying the individual issues is no guarantee that you'll get the entire story, much less a collected edition.
You have infinitely more patience than I.
Guy - Thank you for the tips--I'm pretty new to trade paperbacks in general, so this is realy helpful :).
Sally - Maybe :). One of the things that inspired me was looking at what I'm likely to spend per month buying all single issues, and comparing it with what I'm likely to spend if I wait for trades. But the main thing is that I realized that while there are some comics I tear the box open to read RIGHT AWAY, DAMMIT!, there are others that tend to sit on the table for a day or two or three or until I have some spare time. I still enjoy reading those titles, they're just not books I'm in a hurry for. I figure those ones, I can wait for.
I've been doing the "wait on the trades" for several years now. "52" is the only things I'm getting regularly and even that I'm getting from an online retailer for less than cover so I wait til the end of each month for four weekly issues. Now I see DC soliciting 52 collections. I could have waited but I was unsure they would collect such a numerous run.
Now I see DC soliciting 52 collections. I could have waited but I was unsure they would collect such a numerous run.
Neither DC nor Marvel would ever leave such obvious money on the table like that. Predicting the Big Two's TPBs is like Watergate, "follow the money".
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